PepsiCo drops rapper Lil Wayne over controversial lyric

Lil Wayne, 30, had been the face of the PepsiCo drinkMountain Dew's "Deweezy" campaign, a play on the rapper's"Weezy" nickname.

"We do not plan any additional work with Lil Wayne movingforward," a Mountain Dew representative said in a statement."His offensive reference to a revered civil rights icon does notreflect the values of our brand."

The Deweezy campaign website was taken down.

In a remix of the song "Karate Chop" by rapper Future, LilWayne likens the beating of Till to sex.

The song was leaked onto the Internet in February andprompted an apology from Future's record company, Epic Records,after Till's family had complained.

But the controversy did not stop there. In a letter toTill's family this week, Lil Wayne called the reference"inappropriate" but stopped short of an apology.

Till, an African-American from Chicago, was beaten andmurdered in 1955 at the age of 14 for allegedly whistling at awhite woman in the village of Money, Mississippi, where he wasvisiting family.

An all-white jury acquitted two white men of Till's murder,sparking national outrage. The trial is credited with mobilizingthe civil rights movement and drawing attention to racialinjustice and violence in the American South.

On Wednesday, PepsiCo pulled a series of online ads forMountain Dew by rapper Tyler, The Creator which was criticizedfor embracing racial stereotypes and trivializing violencetoward women.

Epic Records is owned by Sony Music Entertainment, adivision of Sony Corp.